Patriotic Gumdrops
Red White & Blue Gumdrops are easy candies made with Jello, sugar & applesauce! They're festive and delicious, making them an easy 4th of July dessert to share with family and friends.
Servings: 130 pieces
Calories: 61kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 ½ cups sugar divided
- 2 ⅔ cups applesauce divided
- 6 oz cherry jello two 3-oz packages
- 6 oz berry blue jello two 3-oz packages
- 7 envelopes unflavored gelatin divided, .25 oz each envelope
- 1 ¼ cup water divided
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 ½ cups sugar for coating
- ½ cup powdered sugar for coating
Instructions
- Prep: This recipe uses 2 different homemade gumdrop methods to achieve the correct colors. Grease two 9x13 baking dishes and one 8x8 baking dish. Set aside.
- Red & Blue gumdrops: In a large saucepan, stir together 2 cups sugar, 1 ⅓ cups applesauce, 2 packages of cherry Jello and 2 packages unflavored gelatin. Let this mixture stand for 1 minute.
- Over medium heat bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil the mixture for one minute, then immediately pour the mixture into a greased 9x13 pan.
- Repeat the steps above to make the blue gumdrops, using another 2 cups of sugar, 1 ⅓ cups applesauce, two envelopes of unflavored gelatin and the two packages of berry blue Jello. Let stand, then boil, and pour into the other greased 9x13 pan.
- White gumdrops: Pour ½ cup of cold water into a small bowl and sprinkle three envelopes of the unflavored gelatin in the bowl. Let this sit.
- In a small saucepan, bring ¾ cup of water and 1 ½ cups of sugar to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Add the bowl of gelatin, reduce the heat to low, stir and simmer for 5 minutes
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon extract. Continue to pour the mixture into the prepared 8x8 pan.
- Chill: Place all three of the pans into the fridge for 3 hours to set and chill.
- Shape & dry: Pull the set Jello pans from the fridge and cut each mixture into 6 large squares, then use a metal spatula to pull the squares out and transfer onto wax or parchment paper. This will be a sticky job, but they will come out of the pan!
- Use a mini star cookie cutter to cut out shapes and place each start onto a clean sheet of parchment or wax paper lined tray. Let the candies dry at room temperature, for 8 hours or overnight.
- Coat: In a small bowl, whisk 1 ½ cups of granulated sugar and ½ cup of powdered sugar until combined. After a minimum of 8 hours dry time, coat the gumdrops in the sugar mixture until well coated. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Store leftovers in airtight container for up to 7 days.
If these start to sweat, combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar with 2 TBSP powdered sugar and sprinkle over gumdrops and toss them again.
The # of pieces this full recipe yields depends on the size of candy cutters used.
Nutrition
Calories: 61kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 0.04g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.001g | Sodium: 13mg | Potassium: 4mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 0.5mg | Iron: 0.02mg